Limestone Coast General Practitioner Dr David Senior is calling for a comprehensive, ongoing and detailed Health Assessment Study in the Limestone Coast before any gas extraction is allowed.

Dr David Senior, a General Practitioner from Robe, has written in a submission to the fracking hearing “Before any gas extraction were to be allowed to occur, a comprehensive, ongoing and detailed study of the entire region should be undertaken, to include the health of humans, animals and plants, with samples kept for future comparative analysis. Water, soil and air samples should be collected from a large number of sites across the region in addition to tissue samples from humans, animals and plants, as a baseline against which future similar samples could be measured.”

Dr Senior is recommending that this study would need input from organisations such as environmental toxicologists, environmental health scientists and public health professionals.

“I am calling on the Federal Government to commit funding for this baseline health study in our region. Baseline air and water testing must occur before any further gas developments”, Dr Senior says. “We need government to apply the precautionary principle and stop further gas development until it can be proven safe for human and animal health.”